I think this is a key question for many of us today.  How do we stay balanced in the midst of chaos?  What helps us stay balanced?  Is it having a purpose?  Is it staying centered and rooted? Is it continually learning and growing?

Lori Zahn, founder of Perceptive Leaders, recently wrote a post about using these chaotic and uncertain times as an opportunity for learning. I liked it so much, I asked Lori’s permission to repost the whole article and she graciously agreed.  Thanks Lori and happy reading everyone.

MOVING FORWARD: From Resilience to Realistic Optimism
by Lori Zahn

Wait and see. Is this what you’re thinking as the economy sputters around you; your staff and budgets remain constrained; your workload remains high; and you wait for the next shoe to drop? As you wait and see what happens, do you sense that the rules of the game have changed… economic recovery and growth may not be right around the corner … your opportunities at work may be more limited …your employer’s expectations may have changed?  And maybe you feel you have less control over your future now.

In my work in leadership development, I see many career professionals struggle with the “wait and see” dilemma. People feel deeply unsettled by the prolonged economic uncertainty. There’s a “hunkering down” and a frozen state that persists. They’re exhausted from the ongoing demands of their work. And they are cautious about making changes. At the same time, I see among many people a growing boredom at work, a sense that time is passing them by, and a pent-up desire for change.  Therein is the dilemma.

Rather than hitting the pause button or hunkering down while you see how the future shakes out, you can instead take the opportunity to lay the groundwork for your future, even in these uncertain times.  The current economic climate may be with us for a while.  And the changes that have ensued have surely changed the shape of the work world as we know it.  There is no going back to what was.  There is, however, an opportunity to move forward into what can be.

The opportunity and learning here is this: Now is a good time to expand your thinking, do your homework, and maybe grow new roots. Look around and reassess where you are in light of your current situation. Search out opportunities in your work to contribute in different ways, to bring your strengths to the table, and to learn new skills. Redefine your role in ways that add value. Network with people you can share strategies with for navigating the new business climate. And get insight from your colleagues on how to enrich and expand. These are all strategies to make the most of where you are and help you move forward.

This is a time to build on the personal resilience forged over the past two years and to develop a new optimism. I think of it as a “realistic optimism”— one that is informed by what has changed in the new reality; and at the same time, is grounded in a positive outlook about your future.  A future created by the outcomes achieved by the actions you take today.  Consider these questions as you move forward:

How might my mindset, my way of looking at the current situation, be limiting me?

• What opportunities have been created by recent events at work that might allow me to add more value by redefining my role, use more of my strengths, take on something new, or learn new skills?
• What insights might my colleagues have about different ways of looking at my work today, and what I can do now to enrich, expand?
• What opportunities have been created by recent events in the world that might allow me to learn or explore something new?

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Lori Zahn founded Perceptive Leaders, a leadership development consulting company, in 2005 with a vision of helping individuals grow in personal leadership and as organizational leaders contributing optimally in their organizations.  To connect with Lori, please visit  www.perceptiveleaders.com.

This situation is intriguing to me because I have seen it repeated with numerous leaders and managers.  In the leadership development field, we lament the fact that many managers aren’t open to feedback.  Yet those who are often struggle to get it!

I most often see this pattern when the manager is an EJ according to the Myers-Briggs Type Instrument or a high D or I on the Disc instrument.  While we (yes, I fit both descriptions too) have good intentions, we can unintentionally overwhelm others and actually quash feedback – even when we want it.  We come across as overly direct and unwittingly confrontational.  We enjoy debating and playing devil’s advocate and fail to recognize that this conversational style may encourage others to shut down.  When communicating with others who have opposite styles we need to slow down and soften our approach.

Here are some suggestions I’ve tried and shared with other extroverted, action-oriented leaders.

1.    Try to avoid asking yes/no questions such as, “Do you have any feedback for me?” or “Is there anything I could be doing better?”  Instead try asking questions such as, “As you know I am working on being less stubborn about my ideas.  I want to express that I am open to input from others. What suggestions do you have for me?” or “What suggestions do you have for me about how I can be a better listener?”

2.    Recognize that some people may never feel comfortable giving direct critical feedback to their boss.  Learn about your effectiveness as a manager indirectly by talk more about how the employee and the team are doing.  Ask open questions such as:
•    How are you doing?
•    How is the rest of the team doing?
•    Are you getting enough direction?
•    Are you getting enough support?
•    Are our team goals clear to you?
•    Is there anything you need help with

Their answer to these questions will indirectly tell you if you are doing a good job at leading them!

3.    When shy or quiet direct reports provide feedback, remember that this is a big first step for them. In your enthusiasm, it can be easy to overpower them or scare them off.  I like to use a little bird metaphor in situation like these.  Your employee is a little bird and you are a nature lover who wants to encourage the bird to come closer.   View the first piece of feedback they offer much like a bird who has worked up the nerve to take a crumb from the edge of your deck.  Speak softly.  Thank them and move on to another topic.  Avoid the temptation to “run at them” by asking a lot of direct, pointed, or probing questions.  Over time they will see you accepted the feedback and will be more likely to come closer/speak up.

I’d love to keep adding to this list. What else have you tried?

If you are like 95% of managers who responded to a Harvard study, the answer may surprise you.  Most managers believe that recognition for good work has the most impact on employees’ emotions and motivation.  But a decade-long study from Harvard shows that support for making progress is actually the most powerful lever, especially for scientists, engineers, programmers, marketers, and other knowledge workers.

For more than a decade, researchers from Harvard tracked the emotions and motivations of knowledge workers by having them keep detailed diaries of their days. By analyzing the diary entries, the researchers discovered that employee emotions, perceptions, and motivations fluctuate every day.  Lead researcher, Teresa Amible, writes, “We found that the most common triggering event for a ‘best day’ was any progress in the work and the most common event triggering a ‘worst day’ was a setback.” Amabile and her colleagues named this phenomenon the progress principle and they detail their research, findings, and implications for managers in their new book, The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work.

What does the progress principle mean for you?  Should you stop giving recognition or providing financial incentives for a job well done?  Of course not. These tools are still an important part of your motivation toolkit.  However, if you manage people who do creative, complex work you will see the biggest improvement in motivation if you focus first on helping your people make progress.

I’ve been studying energy at work for years and have long noted that the manager’s day-to-day actions can have an enormous effect on their people’s drive and dedication. Thanks to this new research, we now understand that manager actions directly impact employee motivation, which in turn improves their performance and productivity.

To boost motivation, managers need to focus on actions that help people make progress. Such actions include:
•    Clarifying goals
•    Providing resources and tools to get the job done
•    Removing obstacles
•    Providing support and encouragement
•    Enabling autonomy and ownership
•    Helping employees solve problems
•    Encouraging team members to help one another

This list of actions may not seem new if you’ve been managing for any length of time.  The problem is that trying to remember all of these ideas and implement them can be overwhelming.  The beauty of the progress principle is that if you want to motivate your people you simply need to ask yourself, “What can I do to help my team make progress in their work today?” And when employees seem demotivated or deflated, ask “What is getting in the way of progress?”  Then experiment with taking actions and watch the resulting impact on your people’s emotions and productivity.  You may be surprised.

The Problem:

Despite the fact that I have worked in leadership development for more then 15 years,  I often struggle to describe what I do.  Consultant seems to vague. Trainer is far too limited.

A few years ago I was talking with some friends about the work I do.  I explained that I like to work with clients at the very start of the project to discover their needs, tease out and describe the end goals they have in mind, understand their culture, and then create a solution that will get them to their goal. Many of us who work in the field learned the ADDIE model: Assess, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate.  Personally I like to work on projects that run the whole way through from Assess through Evaluate.  My particular skill set and interests make my sweet spot Assess & Design. The problem is that somehow in our field we’ve ended up using “Designer” to describe the Development phase!

In fact, colleagues often contact me when they are looking to hire (permanent or contract) “Designers.”  When I ask them to describe the roles and responsibilities they have in mind the responses vary widely.  Designer sometimes means “We need someone who can understand client needs and conceptualize broad, multiphase and multimedia solutions.”  Sometimes it means “We need someone who can write workbooks and instructor guides.”  Of course, some people can perform all of the responsibility along this spectrum, but I believe that they are two very different roles that require very different skill sets, knowledge, and expertise.

The Solution:

I have a good friend who likes to create workbooks and leaders’ guides.  I am amazed at, impressed by, and grateful for her skills and contributions. I prefer to do the front end conceptual work.  We end up being called the same thing.  We were talking about this one evening and my friend’s husband, who happens to be a software engineer, joined in the conversation.  He lit right up and said, “Well, you (Wendy) and really the architect and Jody (his wife) is the developer.  He went on to explain that Solutions Architect is a term used in software engineering.  It made complete intuitive sense!  When I got home that evening, I googled the term and happened across this job description:

Replace a few words and you have a perfectly accurate description of what so many of us do!  In the months since this conversation, I’ve started to talk to others in our field about the term.  Occasionally I come across folks who are already using it.  More often, I describe it and others say, “That’s perfect.  I totally get it!  Can I use that too?”  It turns out that there have been a lot of us looking for a way to describe what we do.

Why Does It Matter?

I’m not usually someone who obsesses over details.  So why have I been thinking about this for months?  Why am I using up my time to write about it and your time to read about it?  Because I think it matters.  I think we need to be sure that we describe the role we need people to play accurately.  I think that if we don’t have the right terms we end up:

• hiring the wrong people
• causing frustration and conflict due to role confusion
• negatively impacting performance and engagement when people are in the wrong roles
• missing steps that are required for robust, workable, effective solutions
• failing to serve our internal and external clients

In fact, I came across a blog post about the problems that come up when people confuse software development and software programming (You need Developers, not Programmers).  The author points out  that we need to know the difference between people who perform tasks of coding (programmers) and people who are looking at the broader solution and whether it meets the client’s needs (in this case developers).

In the world of leadership development I think we would benefit by having more clear, consistent, and commonly used terms to describe our roles.  I think Solutions Architect is a good start.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Definitely worth 4 minutes and 19 seconds of your time.

As we conducted focus groups with the target population, we quickly learned that the word “delegation” had a negative connotation.  Managers associated delegation with “dumping”.  In the words of one participant, “Oh, I’d never delegate to someone.  I give my people assignments all the time, but I don’t think it’s fair to just dump stuff on others just because I don’t want to do it.”

Hmm. . . when did delegation become dumping?  My take is that this interpretation is the end result of bad management.  If I’ve only had leaders who dump stuff on my desk with no context, explanation, or support  (I call this “drive-by delegating”)  then I will start to have bad feelings about delegation.

Of course, dumping is not what delegation is about.  Delegation is allocating decision-making authority or task responsibility to the appropriate people to maximize individuals’, and therefore the organization’s, effectiveness.

In his book, Bootstrap Leadership, Steve Arneson writes that, delegation:

• Increases work output and maximizes your team’s productivity
• Fosters growth and development]
• Keeps employees motivated and engaged
• Allows the leader to focus on higher level work

Arneson goes on to write, “A general rule of thumb is that you should consider delegating ANYTHING that someone else can do and NOTHING that only you can do.”

The way you delegate makes a big difference to you, the person you are delegating to, and the success of the project.  For some great advice on how to delegate, check out the blog posts from these leadership experts:

• Ron Edmundson
• Dr. Allison Friederichs
• Scott Eblin

My final thought for leaders: Delegating is only dumping when you don’t do it well.

Coaching vs. Mentoring

Steve Arneson, founder of Arneson Leadership Consulting, has been named as one of the Top 25 Leadership Coaches in America by Leadership Excellence magazine for three years in a row. In his book, Bootstrap Leadership, Arneson discusses the difference between mentoring and coaching.  Arneson writes:

Matt Church, co-author of the book Thought Leaders, echoes Arneson’s take.  Church offers a helpful way to think about the difference. For learning in a group setting, you might choose between a speaker, a trainer, and a facilitator.  Church explains that speakers tell; trainers show; and facilitators ask. In a similar progression, leaders looking for one-on-one learning might look to a book or article, a mentor, or a coach. Authors tell; mentors show; and coaches ask.

Of course, even within the realm of coaching there are a variety of methods and approaches. Some coaches emphasize the use of personality assessments and instruments.  Others utilize multi-rater feedback via surveys or interviews to gather data about how a leader is perceived. According to Arneson, the coach’s goal should be to teach leaders to observe, notice, distill, and reflect on how to get better.

The Trusted Advisor

Sometimes a connection with a facilitator, consultant, mentor or coach might evolve into a long-term, multi-year relationship. In these cases, a service provider might become a trusted advisor. Angus Strachan, PhD wrote an article about the role of a trusted advisor. In his words:

Strachan goes on to explain that a trusted advisor performs a variety of roles such as listener, strategist, challenger, and facilitator.

Choosing a Coach

Often mentors are people who are already in your organization or an association you belong to. They are people who have walked the path you are embarking on, and have done so with success. Coaches tend to come from outside your organization or line of business. They may be professionals who work in in HR or L&D for your firm, or experts hired in from the outside. Kathy Bernhard, Principal of KFB Leadership, has written a terrific article on choosing a coach. One of her tips is to be clear on the coach’s definition of coaching and ensure that it’s a match for your needs. For more suggestions, check out her article, ExecCoaching One Size Does not Fit All. For additional advice on choosing and working with a coach or a mentor, check out Steve Arneson’s book, Bootstrap Leadership or listen to my podcast interview with him here.

Fortunately, there are ways to overcome inertia. One trick is to get people to take small steps rather than committing to a major change or approach all at once.  hen several people take a few small steps forward, momentum starts to build and it becomes easier and more natural to keep moving forward.

One of my favorite illustrations of this concepts comes from Jim Collins’ book Good to Great. Collins uses the metaphor of a flywheel as a metaphor for organizational change. Here is an edited excerpt of Collin’s description:

In Collin’s words, no one action is a miracle movement that leads to organizational change. Rather, like with the flywheel, momentum builds as a result of numerous, additive actions.

The flywheel  image came to mind last week when I had the opportunity to witness the power of successive small steps at work. I was honored to be asked to speak at a retreat being held at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.  One of the activities early in the day was a sitting volleyball competition. In honor of the Wounded Warriors who would be competing that week at the OTC, our group was told that we’d have the opportunity to play a version of volleyball that those who had lost legs would play in the games. We’d be sitting on the floor and moving like crabs to get to the ball. Well, I was dressed in my presenting clothes and thought, “I wont play, I’ll just watch.”  Several others in my group muttered the same thing.

Our instructor started the session by asking everyone – even the spectators – to sit on the court. So we all did. Next he gave some pointers and asked everyone – even the spectators – to count off into teams. So we all did.  He then asked each team to form a circle and just practice tossing the ball around – so we all did.

You see where this is going, right? Soon ALL of us – even those who swore we’d only be spectators – were playing and having a great time.

It struck me that often I can get too caught up in trying to motivate people through persuasion and conversation. While both are important techniques to have in our toolkits, another I will be sure to add is simply getting people moving by asking them to take small steps.

In my own work and research, I have identified eight best practices for culture change:

1.    Engage people in the process.

People commit to what they help create. The most successful changes happen when leaders actively engage people at all levels in all phases of the process and when there is a constant feedback loop between people on the front line and the leadership team.  Rather than hinting at the culture you want to see – be explicit about what changes are needed and collaborate with your people to implement the next seven practices.

2.    Describe the current and desired cultures.

What aspects of the current culture do you want to keep?  What do you want to tweak or shift?  What needs to change entirely? Many efforts to change a culture fail because change is described too vaguely and is interpreted in many different ways.  Being specific and descriptive is imperative.

3.    Focus on a few key behaviors.

Because culture is an outcome of thoughts, feelings, and actions, the best way to change a culture is to focus in on a few key behaviors that, if changed, would significantly impact the overall culture. Again, be specific about who needs to do what differently. (see my post Want Change? Get Specific)

4.    Communicate.

To drive a culture change, you must communicate a compelling case for change, along with your vision, and clear expectations. And, you have to repeat yourself. A lot. If you are introducing a change, you’ve probably been working on this long before you unveil it to the people who are going to need to execute the day-to-day details. If it’s your initiative, your project, by the time you say “let’s go” you are thinking that everyone should be right there with you. They aren’t. They time to catch up.  (see my post on The Marathon Effect at Work)

5.    Lead by example.

Research consistently shows that culture is largely top-down.  It is imperative for the leader to not only talk about – but also demonstrate desired behaviors.

6.    Empower and equip employees.

Once you have engaged people, you need to ensure that they are empowered to take action. Empowerment as it is used here means giving people what they need in order to take action, including access to information, authority, and equipment, as well as the knowledge, skills, and ability to demonstrate the desired behaviors.

7.    Recognize progress.

Think about your organization’s reward structures—both the informal and the formal. Which behaviors are getting reinforced and rewarded? The new ones you want to see or the old behaviors you want to do away with? If the answer is “the old behaviors,” you most likely need to take involve the right people in revising expectations and reward structures. Remember the old adage: Only behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated.

8.    Maintain momentum.

Research shows that many culture change efforts fail because attention is only paid to the launch or kickoff.  All too often change loses momentum and becomes “flavor of day” to people on the front line. Be sure to identify a team who is responsible for maintaining momentum, refocusing energy, and revitalizing the effort when the initial attention starts to wane.

Culture change isn’t impossible and it doesn’t have to take forever — but to be successful it requires ongoing focus, energy and engagement.

To me, Zander’s points illustrate exactly what it means to be an Energizing Leader. Imagine the impact we would all have if we remembered and lived by his three simple points:

• The conductor of an orchestra (leader) doesn’t make a sound. He depends for his power on his ability to make other people powerful.
• I realized it was my job to awaken possibility in other people.
• If their eyes are shining, you know you are doing it.

Probably the most inspiring description of leadership I have ever heard.